2020 summer holidays abroad are, surely to God, completely impractical ...

[Dieu]

And how much longer are we supposed to wait and see if it is going ahead? I'm in Scotland. The shops are shut for the foreseeable future, you can't get a dentist appointment, and the GPs are still closed.
I can't imagine an airport teeming with people, when we're supposed to be socially distancing. And I can't get my head around a socially distanced all-inclusive holiday, with restrictions around the pool and in the restaurant. Not to mention, quarantining on our return.
I'm due to leave on July 8. At what point are we going to be told - or not! - that in light of the above, foreign holidays this year are a total impracticality?
And if it does go ahead, will we be given the choice not to go, without losing all our money?

the problem is that the airlines want to get going again and so do many european countries who are ahead of us in infection terms. the problem comes that if the flights are there and so is the accommodation then you wont be able to cancel easily and then be faced with 14 days quarantine when you return. that would so put me off at the moment but its a rotten situation to be in if you have already booked in good faith.

@mummymeister
Thanks for replying. It's crazy. I wish they would just cancel my holiday (booked last year), and be done with it.
There is such a lack of guidance on all of this.

We are in the same position. Flying out on 4th July to France. Flights and accommodation booked separately and paid for last October. So far no cancellation but I honestly cant see how we can go especially with the quarantine in place from next month. Its a complete nightmare. Not confident we won't be out of pocket in this.

So sorry to hear that @mepan I hope the situation gets resolved in your favour.

@mepan We fly on 4th to Portugal and I booked everything separately too. Our villa owner is currently confident we will be able to travel there - I am less sure that flights will be up and running by then. My main 'hope' right now is that flights are cancelled so I can get a refund; in this case, the villa owner has said they'll move our booking to 2021 which suits me.

If everything is technically 'open' then of course, it becomes a decision on risk, and 6 weeks out, I'm just not sure....

We had a holiday booked for 11th July, which was cancelled a while ago, but it was a cruise, so the writing was on the wall for those ages ago.

With regards to whether holidays will be cancelled, it all depends on Foreign Office Advice (FOA). At the moment it is "advise against all but essential travel to anywhere". The travel companies go by this, and they have to refund the money if you can't travel because of FOA. If the quarantining on return thing is still in place, then I reckon FOA will still be essential travel only, so you should get your money back for flights at least, if the quarantining thing is still in place.

The problem though, is if you've booked accommodation separately - if those countries are open, then your accommodation is available, even if you can't reach it. You should be able to claim that back on your insurance.

I've rebooked the 2 holidays I planned for this year, and I'm just accepting now that I may lose money if the companies go under (although both are ATOL protected, so shouldn't do). Everyone's losing money in all of this, whether it's loss of earnings, lost holiday deposits etc.

If they don't cancel and we can technically go, it will help stop the tourist industry going under and put the burden of loss onto the individual, rather than tourist industry and insurers.

I think this is how the government will prop up the tourist industry.

We have an expensive villa that we have paid a 50% depart for, and separate flights. I can see us losing a lot of money over this as I'm not prepared to go.

@astuz Well, exactly. We're lucky that we're both still employed and haven't contracted the virus, so if we end up losing money on a holiday - which of course is technically a luxury - then in a way, we've done well. I'm trying not to stress about it all, but would rather not have to deal with all the admin of travel insurance claims!!

Flight to Barcelona Spain in June, was cancelled by Easy Jet approx 10 days in advance of the flight.
They advised that they would refund the money

We're hoping to go to Portugal towards the end of July. Booked back end of last year. Private villa - balance paid last week, the villa company are sure we will be able to go as Portugal is up and running, and desperate for UK tourists. For now, we just have to wait and see, nothing has been cancelled as the airline (Ryanair) are also sure flights will be operational from the start of July. If we can go, we will, I think risk is low and the type of holiday we are having, social distancing etc won't be an issue.

@usernotfound0000 The UK government needs to lift the FOA travel ban though, because it invalidates all holiday travel insurance. If they don't lift that, then if you get ill/injured with anything (not just COVID), then you won't be insured.

That's what I'm holding out for...I'd definitely going somewhere abroad if they do lift it.

Oh yes, I know that needs lifting too. All the airlines seem to be gearing up for 1st July, hopefully we will get away! What I don't like is not knowing, I don't want to buy stuff until we know but that may end up not being until days before we travel.